Injection molding of various articles has been known for a considerable amount of time. In many cases it is desirable to attach an injection molded material to a web of flexible material Examples include such articles as belts with attached buckles, cable ties with mountings and various types of zippers.
The conventional methods of fabricating items such as these commonly involve several steps. An example is found in manufacture of straps with attached buckles. The buckle is usually injection molded in a multi-part mold. Examples of such buckles are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,150,464 and 4,171,555. The next step is cutting of a length of flexible material to a desired length. The flexible material is then laced through the buckle to form an attachment. A common variation is sewing the flexible material to itself to form a connection to the buckle.
At various times attempts have been made to simplify the above process including gluing the material together rather than sewing. In the case of zippers ultrasonic welding has been used to attach molded parts to a web.
Due to the expense of the above processes the manufacture of parts having dissimilar materials has been limited to relatively high value parts.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a method and apparatus capable of manufacturing such parts in a single step.